UNESCO to Establish Chair at Islamic University of Gaza

Israel expresses "consternation" at news that UNESCO is establishing a chair at Gaza's Islamic University.

Contact Editor

Chana Ya'ar, 12/07/12 19:18

Gaza chieftain Ismail Haniyeh

Israel news photo: Flash 90

The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has decided to establish a chair at the Islamic University of Gaza.

The decision came as a shock to the State of Israel, which expressed “consternation” at the news.

“The Islamic University of Gaza is a known hothouse and breeding ground for Hamas terrorists,” Israel's Foreign Ministry pointed out in a statement issued Thursday.

“Only last month, the University's Dean of Koranic Studies only called for the Islamic conquest of the Vatican and of Spain.”

In its statement, the ministry accused the university of “poisoning the minds of men for the cause of terror” despite the fact that UNESCO's motto is that “It is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”

Scientists and academics at the university double as Hamas technocrats, warned the ministry. “The Islamic University serves as an employment program and intellectual retreat for Hamas leaders."

“The university conducts lectures on Hamas' radical ideology and concentrates on hostility to Israel; Hamas uses Gaza University laboratories to develop and produce explosives and rockets and has even run a course on explosive making. The university is a warehouse for weapons and a venue for secret meetings of military leaders.”

Hamas and the Islamic University believe in extremism, violence and terror, Israel pointed out, “not 'Education, Science and Culture.'” The chair established by UNESCO, emphasized the ministry, is linked to a terror organization – thus further damaging UNESCO's reputation.